It’s an age-old story: When the Las Vegas Raiders are about to play a game they should win easily, the Raiders manage to play poorly and embarrass themselves – usually with an ugly loss.

Las Vegas might have had a chance to improve the score with a couple of late touchdowns in overtime, but lost 36-22. But make no mistake, this game was dominated by the Carolina Panthers, who led 33-7 at one point in the fourth quarter.

Therefore, in this week’s winners and losers column, there are no winners for Silver and Black, only losers.

LOSER: Antonio Pierce

I promise Pierce won’t be listed as a “loser” after every loss like he was in the first two this season, but Sunday’s loss has to start with the head coach. Las Vegas wasn’t ready to play when Carolina took a 7-0 lead on the game’s first possession, and it was pretty clear which team was more motivated to play.

Pierce praised his players’ performance after the game, which was fair since it felt like several players gave up in the second half, especially on defense. But whose job is it to keep them motivated?

The silver and black team were not ready to start and felt too comfortable. And the problems started at the front.

LOSER: Jack Jones

Jones has been good in the Raiders’ first two games of the season, but he had a poor outing last Sunday. Andy Dalton targeted him four times and completed all four passes for 48 yards, two touchdowns and a nearly perfect passer rating of 156.3, according to Pro Football Focus.

In addition, the cornerback missed three tackles, played no role in the running game with a run defense score of 37.4, and was one of the players who made a “business decision” during the game.

LOSER: Luke Getsy

Las Vegas’ offense has been pathetic this season, and while the players need to be better at running — especially the offensive line — Getsy also needs to adjust his plays. For example, Zamir White is known to be much better at gap runs than zone runs, yet the offensive coordinator continues to call the latter, as six of White’s 10 runs were zone runs, according to PFF.

That’s inexcusable, and aside from two quarters against the Ravens, the passing game hasn’t shown many signs of hope either. I know I’ve been on Getsy’s side lately, but his reluctance to adapt his system to what the players do best is getting more and more annoying, and it’s time to adjust.

LOSER: John Jenkins

Of course, not all of the 131 rushing yards Carolina gained came on Jenkins’ shoulders. However, he’s in the game to do one thing: stop the run, and he managed to earn a below-average PFF run defense grade of 51.6. The big nose tackle was pushed around too much, and while he had four total tackles, only one was a good play, as most of his stops came several yards down the field.

LOSER: Gardner Minshew

Don’t get this wrong, Minshew was far from the Raiders’ biggest or only problem on Sunday. However, he didn’t improve things and became the quarterback we saw in the season opener instead of building on his impressive second half in Week 2.

Minshew did have one good throw to Tre Tucker, but other than that one successful throw, he averaged 5.7 yards per attempt. Additionally, the quarterback doesn’t help his offensive line if he holds onto the ball for too long instead of releasing it. For example, his average throw time of 2.85 seconds was his longest of the season, and it wasn’t as if he was waiting to throw the ball down the field.

LOSER: Nate Hobbs

Hobbs wasn’t Las Vegas’ biggest problem defensively, but he didn’t help either, and the team needed a better performance from arguably its best defensive back. Carolina targeted him more often than any other defender, with eight passes coming his way, resulting in six successful passes for 72 yards and a touchdown.

The main culprit was Diontae Johnson, who accounted for two catches, 52 yards and two first downs against Hobbs, as the four-year veteran simply wasn’t good enough and didn’t rise to the challenge to the required degree.